'A chain of wrong decisions'

Maj. Gen. Randolph Alles, assistant wing commander for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, spoke at a news conference yesterday about the causes of the F/A-18 crash in University City in December. (Eduardo Contreras / Union-Tribune)

Maj. Gen. Randolph Alles, assistant wing commander for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, spoke at a news conference yesterday about the causes of the F/A-18 crash in University City in December. (Eduardo Contreras / Union-Tribune)

EXCERPTS

Portions of the recording released yesterday by the Federal Aviation Administration:

FAA air traffic controller: Nature of emergency?

Lt. Dan Neubauer: Yes, sir. One soul on board. I'm down to a single engine (and) possibly a problem with the other engine

Controller: Straight into Runway 36 (at North Island)?

Neubauer: I'm actually going to try to take it to Miramar, if possible.

Controller: OK, just let me know what you want to do.

Neubauer: Thank you. I'm coordinating with people on the ground to figure out what we're doing.

Controller: Just let me know if you want to change to North Island. I'm going to keep you on a heading that will run you right by North Island and it's going to be a shortcut to Miramar.

Neubauer: Roger.

Military air traffic controller: (Neubauer) has crashed, actually.

FAA supervisor: You're kidding me.

Online: To hear a recording between the pilot and an air traffic controller, view a photo gallery and see video of yesterday's news conference at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, go to uniontrib.com/more/marinecrash

A military jet's deadly December crash in University City could have been averted if the pilot and ground crew had followed emergency rules for landing at North Island Naval Air Station, and if the plane had been removed from service when mechanics found a fuel problem, Marine officials said in strikingly candid remarks yesterday.

Lt. Dan Neubauer's decision to bypass North Island and head toward Miramar Marine Corps Air Station over populated areas has been criticized by many, including residents near the crash site.

The Dec. 8 crash killed a woman, her two young daughters and her mother.

Half an hour before the crash, Neubauer shut down one of the jet's two engines because of low oil pressure. (Editor's note: earlier version incorrectly said fuel wasn't flowing.) Marine officials defended the decision at first, saying no one could have expected the second engine to fail.

They reversed their stance yesterday.

“Landing at North Island was the prudent and correct decision to make,” said Col. John Rupp, operations officer for the Miramar-based 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. “Unfortunately, that decision was never made.”

No criminal charges are pending, but four officers from the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101 – the squadron commander, squadron operations officer, standardization officer and maintenance officer – were relieved of their duties in the past two weeks. The move basically ends their military careers.

“That is all the senior leadership of the command. They're gone,” said retired Navy Capt. Charles Nesby of Mira Mesa, a former aircraft-wing commander who flew 17 years out of Miramar.

Eight other Marines and one sailor have been reprimanded.

Marine officials have grounded Neubauer while they review his flight status. The pilot, new to the F/A-18D Hornet, was practicing his first rounds of takeoffs and landings on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on the day of the crash.

Aviation tradition assigns full responsibility for safe operation of an aircraft to the pilot. But Maj. Gen. Randolph Alles, assistant wing commander for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, attributed the crash to “supervisory error and a chain of wrong decisions.”